deep-loop

name	deep-loop
description	Operator command to drill ONE topic to primary sources with current data — iterative multi-agent research that deepens each round until the topic saturates, delivered as a founder-legible decision over a fully cited report; watch mode re-runs on an interval and pings only on material change.
argument-hint	<topic> [depth: quick|standard|deep] [rounds: N] [fresh-since: 30d|6mo|DATE] [watch: 6h|daily|weekly] [perspectives: "a, b, c"] [saturation-k: N] [save: vault|here|off] [budget: $N]
disable-model-invocation	true
allowed-tools	Read, Grep, Glob, Bash, Agent, Task, Workflow, WebSearch, WebFetch, Skill, ToolSearch, mcp__claude_ai_Exa__web_search_exa, mcp__claude_ai_Exa__web_fetch_exa, mcp__margot__deep_research

deep-loop — the one-topic research-depth engine

INVOCATION — read this first. disable-model-invocation: true means calling this skill through the Skill tool errors by design (it stops the sub-agent fleet auto-firing an expensive swarm). When the operator types /deep-loop <topic>, Read this file and run the gates below inline — never Skill(deep-loop). Mirrors /nexus.

What this is / is not

The estate's single-topic depth engine: Exa-first freshness + honest Mixture-of-Agents (arXiv 2406.04692) + a swarm loop that re-targets each round at the previous round's open gaps. It inherits nexus G1/G3/G6/G7 by pointer to ~/.claude/skills/nexus/references/orchestration-playbook.md — zero duplication — and is itself the depth engine /nexus may dispatch at its G3/G4. It is NOT a quick lookup (D0 downshifts those), NOT storm's neutral long-form article (route out, don't nest), NOT the built-in /loop interval runner (watch-mode composes with it), and NOT the lighter built-in deep-research single-pass harness — use deep-loop when the topic needs iterative deepening and current data.

Invocation and flags (English flags, smart defaults)

Flag	Values	Default
depth:	quick (3 proposers) / standard (4) / deep (6, K=2, 5 rounds; Opus aggregators only with budget:)	standard
rounds:	N (hard cap)	3 (deep: 5)
fresh-since:	30d / 6mo / ISO date	12 months
watch:	6h / daily / weekly — recurring re-run via built-in /loop	off
perspectives:	"a, b, c" — overrides auto-discovery	auto (3–6)
saturation-k:	consecutive dry rounds before stop	1 (deep: 2)
save:	vault / here / off	vault
budget:	$N — raises TAO_MAX_COST_USD for this run only	ceiling as set

An underspecified topic gets 2–3 tight clarifying questions before anything fires.

Live progress contract

One glanceable line per event, so the operator can act on the log alone: R{n}.L{layer} {role}×{count} [{lane}] … {new}/{total} claims verified · ${spend} Plus one line per stop-condition trigger naming the guard that fired.

The gates

D0 — Appetite (always). Classify with the nexus G1 classifier (by pointer). A small/well-specified question → answer directly or run a single Exa pass and STOP — the apparatus must not fire for a narrow ask.

• Completion: appetite named; the null case honoured.

D1 — Frame & mine (always). Ground in the vault before reaching outward: node "$HOME/2nd Brain/2nd Brain/_system/brain.js" find "<topic>" (nexus-recall; self-heal the index on a miss). Restate the topic as an outcome. Discover 3–6 research perspectives from the menu in references/moa-swarm-playbook.md; the perspectives: flag overrides.

• Completion: perspectives named; prior context mined; recall hit/miss recorded.

D2 — MoA round. Each round: L1 proposers (Sonnet, one perspective or one gap each, own retrieval down the Exa ladder) → L2 aggregators ×2 (each receives ALL proposer outputs: A1 corroborate/reconcile, A2 divergence/gap-miner; each must emit a delta note) → L3 synthesist (Opus, the only seat that writes claims to the corpus; emits the gap ledger + running Executive Read + materiality verdict). Full layer spec, perspective menu, and gap-ledger schema are in references/moa-swarm-playbook.md; read it before opening D2.

• Completion: ≥1 round ran; every load-bearing claim tiered + corroborated or tagged unverified.

D3 — Swarm loop. Round 1 is breadth (perspectives). Round N (≥2) is depth: rank the previous round's gap ledger by load-bearing-ness and seed a FRESH proposer swarm one-per-gap (floor 2); the corpus carries forward read-only. Gaps are the literal task list of the next round — depth compounds, breadth is never re-run. An empty ledger stops the loop.

• Completion: each round after the first traces to named gaps.

D4 — Exa lane + integrity. Exa is the primary freshness lane behind a mandatory, never-silent ladder: Exa → WebSearch (whitelist-seeded) → WebFetch — per references/exa-and-integrity.md (includes the ToolSearch preload step for the deferred Exa tools). The research-integrity bar is nexus G3 verbatim, by pointer: credibility ladder, corroboration bar, gap-mining, honest degradation.

• Completion: no naked single-source load-bearing claim; the lane that actually ran is reported.

D5 — Stop conditions. Five guards — HARD_STOP, TAO_MAX_COST_USD (pre-round projection), round cap, per-round agent caps, saturation (K consecutive dry rounds; dual-condition test + cheap pre-filter) — specified in references/moa-swarm-playbook.md. Caps always beat saturation. Partials persist to disk after every round.

• Completion: the stop reason is recorded in the report footer.

D6 — Adversarial verify. Route the final corpus through opus-adversary (nexus G6, by pointer): flip-test each load-bearing claim; a claim that flips is downgraded to "assumption (unverified)" before it can reach the Executive Read.

• Completion: load-bearing claims survived an independent adversary, or were downgraded.

D7 — Deliver. Open with the nexus G7 Executive Read (by pointer — ≤120 words, plain language, register ban-list). Below --- detail ---: the cited report with {source URL, tier} per claim, the unverified list, the defended divergence (or "none found"), the REMAINING gap ledger, and the method footer (rounds, stop reason, active lane per round, spend). save:vault writes the sanctioned Outcomes note (~/2nd Brain/2nd Brain/Outcomes/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>.md) + OKF regen via the generator; watch: routes 6h→built-in /loop, daily/weekly→schedule, with edge-triggered pings. Details in references/output-and-watch.md.

• Completion: decision-first top; cited detail below; partials labelled at the top.

Guards (mandatory whenever D2 opens)

HARD_STOP, cost projection, round/agent caps, structural recursion depth-1, and the model ladder are specified ONCE in references/moa-swarm-playbook.md §Guards — the ORCHESTRATOR checks them between rounds. Degradation is stated, never silent.

Mechanism

The orchestrator owns the swarm loop, guards, and per-round persistence; each MoA round executes as ONE Workflow call (or batched parallel Agent calls where Workflow is unavailable). The canonical orchestrator loop + round script live in references/workflow-script.md — never inline them here.